Architect. Includes personal, professional, and family correspondence, financial records, articles and printed matter, photographs, music scores and general memorabilia. Includes information about the Meads' relationship with Amherst College, including their bequest for the construction of the Mead Art Museum.

Terms of Access and Use:

Restrictions on access:

There is no restriction on access to the Papers for research use. Particularly fragile items are restricted for preservation purposes.

Restrictions on use:

Requests for permission to publish material from the Papers should be directed to the Archives and Special Collections. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights.

Amherst College Archives and Special Collections

Biographical Note

William Rutherford Mead was born in Brattleboro, Vermont in 1846. Mead graduated from Amherst College in 1867, after which he studied architecture in Boston and in Europe under Russell Sturgis, Jr.

Mead started an architectural partnership with Charles F. McKim in New York City in 1872. In 1879, they were joined by Charles F. McKim to form McKim, Mead, and White, of which he was principal until his death in 1928. The firm designed many of the most notable structures in the country, including the Agricultural and New York State buildings at the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893, the Boston Public Library, Rhode Island State Capitol, the old Madison Square Garden (since demolished), and the Columbia University library.

In 1883, Mead wed Olga Kilyeni in Budapest, Hungary. In 1902, King Victor Emmanuel conferred upon Mead the decoration of Knight Commander of the Crown of Italy in recognition of his pioneer work in introducing the Roman and Italian Renaissance architectural style in America. Also in 1902, Amherst College conferred upon Mead the honorary degree of LL.D. In 1909, he recieved a degree of M.S. from Norwich University in Vermont.

Mr. and Mrs. Mead lived abroad in Rome, where Mr. Mead was the President of the American Academy in Rome until his death in 1928. When Mrs. Mead died in 1936 in New York City, her entire estate was bequeathed to Amherst College. Much of that bequest was used to fund construction of the Mead Art Building, designed by James Kellum Smith of McKim, Mead and White and completed in 1949.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

Personal, professional, and family correspondence, financial records, articles and printed matter, photographs, music scores and general memorabilia documenting the personal and professional lives of William Rutherford Mead as an architect with McKim, Mead and White, and of his wife Olga Kilyeni Mead. The collection includes papers related to Mead's architectural designs for "Redtop," the house in Belmont, Massachusetts, which Mead designed for his sister Elinor Mead Howells and her husband William Dean Howells, 1876-1878; papers relating to the Meads' relationship with Amherst College, including information about their bequest for the construction of the Mead Art Museum. Photographs include portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Mead, family photographs, photographs of William and Elinor Mead Howells, and various travel images and unidentified family photographs. Also included in the collection are several dozen music scores, chiefly 19th century, by Hungarian, German and French composers.

There is no restriction on access to the Papers for research use. Particularly fragile items are restricted for preservation purposes.

Restrictions on use:

Requests for permission to publish material from the Papers should be directed to the Archives and Special Collections. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights.

Preferred Citation

Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:

The papers consist of materials that appear to have been received in 1981 (see Series A, box 1, folder 1a, "General Files: Accessions Records"), plus items from the Alumni Biographical file for Mead, integrated in 2001. A few items remain in the biographical file (e.g. obituary notices which provide factual information) together with a copy of these notes and inventory.

Series A, William Rutherford Mead, 1840-2001, includes family and personal correspondence, certificates and other official documents, biographical and genealogical information and other materials documenting Mr. Mead's personal life and professional career as an architect with McKim, Mead and White. Papers in this series document, in particular, Mead's relationship with Amherst College and the design and construction of "Redtop," the house in Belmont, Mass. which Mead designed for his sister Elinor Mead Howells and her husband William Dean Howells, 1876-1878.

General File (1 of 2)

1872-1949

Box 1: folder 1

General File: (2 of 2) - accessions records

1981

Box 1: folder 1a

Personal documents - wills, marriage licenses, etc.

1883,1908,1920

Box 1: folder 2

Official documents - obituaries, bequests, honors, memorials

1928-1937

Box 1: folder 3

Amherst College - general

1906,1917,2001

Box 1: folder 4

Amherst College - correspondence

1903-1924

Box 1: folder 5

Amherst College - bronze bust controversy

1931

Box 1: folder 6

Amherst College - Mead Art Building

1948,1949

Box 1: folder 7

Outgoing correspondence

1871-1922

Box 1: folder 8

Incoming correspondence, alphabetical by correspondent

1904,1922

Box 1: folder 9

Family - general and genealogical

1958

Box 1: folder 10

Family - great-grandmother's diary (see note in folder)

1840-42

Box 1: folder 11

Family - Charles Levi Mead (brother)

1899

Box 1: folder 12

Family - Larkin Mead (brother): general

1862,1911,1931

Box 1: folder 13

Family - Larkin Mead (brother): letters to family

1855-56

Box 1: folder 14

"Redtop"- home designed by WRM for William Dean Howells and Elinor Mead Howells (sister of WRM), Belmont, Mass.

Series C, Photographs, ca. 1860-1920, include portraits of both William Rutherford and Olga Kilyeni Mead as well as photos of the William and Elinor Mead Howells family. This series also includes several folders of unidentified family photos and a scrapbook of travel images, ca. 1910.

William Rutherford Mead as a young man

n.d.

Box 3: folder 1

William Rutherford Mead (mid-life)

n.d.

Box 3: folder 2

William Rutherford Mead (later life)

n.d.

Box 3: folder 3

William Rutherford Mead with others

n.d.

Box 3: folder 4

Mead family/related families

n.d.

Box 3: folder 5

Howells family (WDH, Elinor Mead Howells, children)

n.d.

Box 3: folder 6

Olga Kilyeni Mead as a young girl and young woman

n.d.

Box 3: folder 7

Olga Kilyeni Mead, mid-life

n.d.

Box 3: folder 8

Olga Kilyeni Mead, later life, includes two tintypes

n.d.

Box 3: folder 9

Olga Kilyeni Mead with sister and mother

n.d.

Box 3: folder 10

Olga Kilyeni Mead in unidentified groups

n.d.

Box 3: folder 11

William Rutherford and Olga Kilyeni Mead in groups

n.d.

Box 3: folder 12

Interiors (possibly homes of William Rutherford and Olga Kilyeni Mead)

n.d.

Box 3: folder 13

William Rutherford Mead, Olga Kilyeni Mead - poor quality photos

n.d.

Box 3: folder 14

Unidentified children

n.d.

Box 3: folder 15

Daguerreotypes and print by Bachrach: "Leonard Moses"

n.d.

Box 3: folder 16

Unidentified women

n.d.

Box 3: folder 17

Unidentified men

n.d.

Box 3: folder 18

Unidentified groups and couples

n.d.

Box 3: folder 19

Unidentified daguerreotypes (two)

n.d.

Box 3: folder 20

Men and women in costume (possibly native Hungarian)

n.d.

Box 3: folder 21

Unidentified scenes, buildings, etc. (U.S., abroad)

n.d.

Box 3: folder 22

Misc. art photos

n.d.

Box 3: folder 23

Scrapbook of steamship and interiors (ca. 1910?) is shelved as "Item 23" in Series C, immediately following Box 3.

ca. 1910

Box pkg: folder pkg

Series D: Sheet Music

Series D, Sheet Music, is a collection of 19th century scores by chiefly Hungarian, German and French composers. The scores were included within the papers of Mr. and Mrs. Mead. The series is arranged alphabetically by the (often presumed) name of the composer. The inventory for this series was prepared without any working knowledge of Hungarian and without scrupulous notations of foreign diacritics and punctuation; it is, therefore, only a rough approximation of the chief information about each score.

Abr&#225;nyi: name appears in two forms: Abr&#225;nyi, C. and Abr&#225;nyi, Korn&#233;l

The following terms represent persons, organizations, and topics documented in this collection. Use these headings to search for additional materials on this web site, in the Five College Library Catalog, or in other library catalogs and databases.